Israel’s Shin Bet chief in 'secret' visit to US for FBI talks

The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency reportedly travelled to Washington on Saturday for discussions on “sensitive issues” with the FBI.

According to Israel’s Channel 13 on Monday, Shin Bet chief David Zini travelled to the US capital for meetings with his FBI counterparts.

An unnamed source told the broadcaster that the discussions would cover “sensitive issues”, including settler violence in the occupied West Bank and the evacuation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, from Miami to Israel after he was allegedly targeted in an Iranian assassination plot in December 2025 while living in Florida.

Neither Israel nor the US has confirmed the reported visit.

Israel’s public broadcaster *KAN *previously reported that the Shin Bet had said that “there was a significant threat to harm Yair Netanyahu, and in light of this and after an assessment, a decision was made to urgently extract him along with his security team and return him to Israel.”

Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu’s eldest son spent much of the previous several years living in the Miami area, where his reportedly lavish lifestyle and state-funded security detail repeatedly came under scrutiny in Israel amid the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

His extended stay abroad drew criticism following the outbreak of the war after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, according to The Times of Israel, with critics in Israel questioning why the prime minister’s son remained overseas while hundreds of thousands of Israelis were serving as military reservists.

Meanwhile, the reported visit by Shin Bet chief David Zini, a controversial far-right figure who reportedly opposed ending the nearly three-year Gaza war, would mark his first foreign trip since taking over as head of Israel’s internal security agency in October 2025.

His predecessor, Ronen Bar, announced his resignation last June after weeks of tensions with Netanyahu.